When a customer deposit a check at an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or in person, the United States Government imposes a variety of restrictions on the bank.
One such restriction is referred to as Regulation CC (Expedited Funds Availability Act). This imposes a minimum amount of time, given certain conditions, that the bank may permissible hold the funds associated with the check before releasing them to the consumer. This is designed to protect both the consumer and the bank.
However, nothing restricts a bank from being more generous and releasing funds associated with a check deposit before Regulation CC says the funds has to be released. The bank may want to do this for a variety of reasons, such as to distinguish itself over other banks to gain a competitive advantage or to engender customer loyalty for its most valued customers. Given that competition is fierce in the banking industry, banks are looking for ways to improve their position with their customers and to attract new customers.
But, whenever a bank decides to be more generous than what the Regulations CC would call for, the bank assumes the risk when something goes awry with the consumer check deposited. This could prove costly to the bank. Thus, some banks have a variety of business rules that can be used to assist a teller in making a decision as to whether to put a smaller hold on a deposited check. These decisions can be voluminous and complicated and often real time decisions with the customer still present attempting to deposit a check is impractical.
Furthermore, Regulation CC permits (in some cases) for funds to be held longer period of time than is defined in Regulation CC in some exceptional circumstances.
Moreover, these manual decisions by tellers are often not available when a consumer makes a deposit via an ATM.
It should also be noted that it is not just the United States and its Regulation CC, but many other countries of the world have similar types of laws with respect to the hold times on deposited checks. So, the banking issue is a world-wide issue and not just a United States issue.
Thus, automated check deposit decisions are needed for tellers to determine whether to places a shorter hold on deposited checks than what Regulation CC would recommend.